Questions for Biblical literalists.

View the linked video. Is it literal or is it symbolic?

It's literally a staged comedy, and symbolic of very poor acting.

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@pettytalk said
View the linked video. Is it literal or is it symbolic?

It's literally a staged comedy, and symbolic of very poor acting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3I5G9Cvbos

No matter the answer it’s a one off, looking at a single event doesn’t mean all would be valid or invalid, or some are and some not.

@kellyjay said
No matter the answer it’s a one off, looking at a single event doesn’t mean all would be valid or invalid, or some are and some not.

If there were any true believers with enough faith the size of a mustard seed, who could perform those signs listed in Mark 16:17-18, all the false preachers and teachers claiming to accomplish it would be put out of business, in a twinkling of an eye.

If it were possible, and there were believers who, with the touch of their hands, could really cure the sick, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we would have lined up to get those hands to touch us, instead of getting pricked with needles injecting vaccines.

Furthermore, when Trump got Covid, he went to the hospital and got treated by doctors, not by his spiritual advisor, Paula White, who is one of those prosperity gospel preachers who lays hands on her flock's money, and speaks in tongues. No need to list all she does, as we can easily imagine it, since the whole of them are all the same, more or less, based on the money which goes into their pockets.

These two are older youtube videos still around. At that time, the second video made the rounds of all the nighty comedy shows, and Trump's spiritual advisor got ridiculed out of heaven, since it was literal hellish nonsense. Are there people who actually believe this stuff?

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When you pray, don’t BABBLE ON and ON as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words AGAIN and AGAIN." --Matt 6:7

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@pettytalk said
If there were any true believers with enough faith the size of a mustard seed, who could perform those signs listed in Mark 16:17-18, all the false preachers and teachers claiming to accomplish it would be put out of business, in a twinkling of an eye.

If it were possible, and there were believers who, with the touch of their hands, could really cure the sick, during the ...[text shortened]... y repeating their words AGAIN and AGAIN." --Matt 6:7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdfYc5B0geQ

In all of this talk, is there a point?

@divegeester said
Here’s the passage:

”And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Can you demonstrate how it doesn’t apply to ALL of “those who believe”?

KellyJay?

@pettytalk said
If there were any true believers with enough faith the size of a mustard seed, who could perform those signs listed in Mark 16:17-18, all the false preachers and teachers claiming to accomplish it would be put out of business, in a twinkling of an eye.

If it were possible, and there were believers who, with the touch of their hands, could really cure the sick, during the ...[text shortened]... y repeating their words AGAIN and AGAIN." --Matt 6:7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdfYc5B0geQ

You want to keep asking why God isn't moving, but the real question isn't that, God will act as God wills. This is the only thing that matters.

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@kellyjay said
You want to keep asking why God isn't moving, but the real question isn't that, God will act as God wills. This is the only thing that matters.

https://youtu.be/8GrT2DHIMv0

Why don’t you answer my question in a way whereby you aren’t replying to me directly?

That way you can address my spot on point AND not feel that your brittle childish “ignore” stance hasn’t been impinged.

@pettytalk said
If there were any true believers with enough faith the size of a mustard seed, who could perform those signs listed in Mark 16:17-18, all the false preachers and teachers claiming to accomplish it would be put out of business, in a twinkling of an eye.

If it were possible, and there were believers who, with the touch of their hands, could really cure the sick, during the ...[text shortened]... y repeating their words AGAIN and AGAIN." --Matt 6:7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdfYc5B0geQ

Do you see the Holy Spirit is just like Starwars midichlorians?

@kellyjay said
In all of this talk, is there a point?

Apparently I need a pencil sharpener, or more likely, need a less dense object on which to make the points.

@kellyjay said
You want to keep asking why God isn't moving, but the real question isn't that, God will act as God wills. This is the only thing that matters.

https://youtu.be/8GrT2DHIMv0

Never mind God's will. I'm only asking, literally, why you're not moving towards compiling a list of a few miraculous, genuine results from the laying on of hands by genuine believers in Jesus' name. Will you do that?

@divegeester said
Why don’t you answer my question in a way whereby you aren’t replying to me directly?

That way you can address my spot on point AND not feel that your brittle childish “ignore” stance hasn’t been impinged.

KellyJay?

🙂

@kellyjay said
Do you see the Holy Spirit is just like Starwars midichlorians?

Apparently, you have difficulties with analogies and similes.

I brought to your attention the Star Wars scene where Yoda is training Luke on using the force. The point was that without enough faith (belief), Luke was unable to move a mountain (his space fighter) out of the swamp and onto dry ground. This parallels the theme of the power of belief (faith) contained in Mark 16:17-18 and Matthew 17:14–20.

Furthermore, if God is truly omnipresent, then a further comparison can be made with the universal Force of Star Wars, which Yoda told Luke was everywhere and in everything. Obviously, there are a few things borrowed from the Bible which the writers of the Star Wars saga utilized.

It would be very nice if we had a reliable instrument which could measure the level of the Force in each of us. It would be the same instrument to measure the force (size) of our belief, to see if it was at least the size of a mustard seed. And if we had anyone with that much faith, we could use them in the construction business, and do away with all the bulldozers and all other earth-moving equipment.

@pettytalk said
Never mind God's will. I'm only asking, literally, why you're not moving towards compiling a list of a few miraculous, genuine results from the laying on of hands by genuine believers in Jesus' name. Will you do that?

It doesn’t matter what I say, you don’t have to accept anything I say. I can tell about miracles I have seen, and you can say prove it. Even a Google search can show you those types of things, it all can be explained away, some which should be and even the real ones.

I have been pointing out that a lot of things that are unavoidable, like the specific functional systematic nature of life, where highly specialized subsystems are integrated in a life but people choose to ignore all of that and the information directing all form and function, to give credit to nothing. We live in a miracle and have our being in one, but all it takes to dismiss that is a single grain of doubt.

A grain of mustard seed of faith can remove mountains.

@kellyjay removed their quoted post

You're a rascal. If we were playing baseball, and you were the pitcher, and I the batter, you would throw only change-ups.

The only ones who are putting hands on others, as per Mark 16:17-18 are false preachers and false teachers, mainly. Then there are a few who, like yourself have witnessed, are fooled into believing that they are actually performing these miraculous acts, and those watching are equally fooled.

The easiest act to fool those in their sheepfold with is speaking in tongues. They all make up gibberish and credit the Holy Spirit for uttering such nonsense and lies.

Those among the flock who go into a frenzy, believing to be possessed by the holy spirit, are simply deceivers too. They fool themselves first, and then fool all those witnessing the frenzy.

If the Egyptians had actually witnessed all the supernatural activities said to have been performed by Moses in Exodus, Pharaoh and all the Egyptians would have followed Moses to the promised land and then applied for citizenship in the land flowing with milk and honey.

Faced with a mighty obstacle barring the Hebrews' escape from the ensuing Egyptian army, anyone who had witnessed such mighty supernatural feats of the grand parting of the Red Sea would have become an instant believer for sure, whether Hebrew or Egyptian. Not to mention the mighty pillar of fire protecting the runaway slaves.

The truth is that Exodus is mere symbolism, and there are no historical records, and no records of great numbers of Hebrew slaves in Egypt.

A believer with sufficient faith, laying of hands, is equally symbolic. It's symbolic of the Kingdom of God, where our souls reside. There, you can actually move a mountain with just your thoughts, without a doubt. Out of our bodies our souls have nothing material to doubt with. And therefore, ironically, as in the Sermon of the Mount-ain, God's Kingdom come, it will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The evil one in the prayer is ignorance, and ignorance raises doubts.

To a lesser degree of grandiosity, the same can be said of those conditions in Mark 16:17-18. Anyone seeing them performed with just the touch of the hands would become a believer, to a degree much higher before seeing it.

Jesus is the Son of God, the Father. They say that God is Love. And Jesus, as the Son, is the God Love.

God, the Father, wants everyone to love each other, and that includes Himself.

Now I have to leave things as they stand, because I broke my pencil's point again, and I need to go shopping for more pencils.

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